Zartoshte Bakhtiari is mayor of Neuilly-sur-Marne and has been patrolling the streets during the rioting (Picture: Getty/Tollié Laurie)
A French mayor who patrolled the streets of Paris overnight to act as an early warning system for police said the city descended into hell ‘within days’.
There have been riots across France since the death of 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk, who was shot by a police officer during a traffic stop last Tuesday.
Zartoshte Bakhtiari is the mayor of Neuilly-sur-Marne, one of France’s poorest areas on the outskirts of Paris.
Today he’s set to meet President Emmanuel Macron along with more than 200 other mayors to discuss the ongoing riots – and he’ll call for ‘more toughness’ from the state and for police to use drones to monitor riot activity.
For the latest news on the Paris riots and shooting, follow Metro.co.uk’s live blog here
Mr Bakhtiari told the BBC: ‘Within days, we were in hell.
‘What’s happening now is the result of years of weakness from politicians, and decisions that have not been taken.
‘It’s a problem of authority because these [rioters] don’t fear justice. [They] may go to court, but they come back home a few hours after trial simply because we don’t have enough places in jail in this district of Paris.
‘We cannot support this kind of weakness from the state.’
Zartoshte Bakhtiari has only been getting two or three hours of sleep since the riots started (Picture: Tollié Laurie)
Three of the seven burnt out police cars after an arson attack at the local police station (Picture: Bertrand GUAY/AFP)
By day Mr Bakhtiari works at the town hall as mayor, but during the rioting he’s been staying up until 5am patrolling the streets with other staff and city councillors.
He says he hasn’t slept for more than two or three hours a night since the rioting began.
On Thursday night he saw people jump over the wall to the local police station’s car park with a jerrycan of petrol, setting fire to seven police cars.
However, the building was shared with the public housing department and the fire destroyed a significant amount of paper files, wiping out the records of 2,300 of the people most desperate for housing in the local area.
The arsonists, caught on CCTV, appeared to be aged 14-16-years-old.
Mr Bakhtiari rejected accusations that there’s a problem with the French police force. Many have suggested Nahel’s race played a role in the shooting.
He said: ‘Absolutely not, I cannot hear that kind of argument.
‘Maybe we have people in the police who are racist, but we cannot say the police [itself] is racist. The police behave very well here in France.’
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